(Cafe Chairel | Film still courtesy of BendFilm Festival)
The 2025 Bend Film Festival is celebrating its 22nd year by expanding, stretching to a full five days (October 8-12), and sharpening its focus on what makes independent cinema essential. With a new dedicated North American Indie Competition spotlighting filmmakers who deserve broader recognition, the Festival is creating vital space for stories that need audiences – and will find them in Bend’s cinemas.
With 18 films competing in the North American Indie Competition, plus Environmental, Indigenous and Spotlight categories, this year’s lineup represents another masterful curation of diverse storytelling. Add 74 short films from 16 countries, and you’ve got five days of the kind of cinema that reminds you why you fell in love with movies in the first place. From the opening “Shorts Open” on Wednesday October 8 and the Opening Night Film on Thursday, October 9, through the festival’s Awards Ceremony on Saturday and Closing Night on Sunday October 12, it’s a rewarding sprint: a cinematic marathon worth training for.
“It’s a pleasure and a privilege to gather communities together,” says BendFilm Executive Director Giancarlo Gatto. “Watching and discussing films is an incredible exercise in empathy and connection, especially during chaotic or uncertain times. We’re excited for locals and visitors alike to experience these films and the full scope of the Festival across live events, music, parties and more.”
Celebrating Visionary Filmmakers
Dee Rees takes the spotlight as this year’s Indie Filmmaker of the Year, bringing her remarkable track record of unflinching, bold character work. The Oscar and Emmy-nominated writer/director has crafted powerful narratives with films like Pariah, Bessie and Mudbound, earning her place as the first African American woman nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the Academy Awards and the first invited to include a film in the prestigious Criterion Collection. The festival will screen both her breakthrough Pariah (a Brooklyn teenager’s search for sexual expression amid conflicting identities) and Mudbound, which follows two men returning from World War II to face racism and trauma on a Mississippi farm. Rees will also be leading a live panel that promise insider perspectives on the craft of character-driven storytelling.
Jessica Matten earns recognition as this year’s Indigenous Honoree, and her multifaceted career spans acting, producing and advocacy with remarkable depth. The Red River Métis, Cree, Chinese and European actress has delivered compelling performances in Rez Ball, Dark Winds, Frontier and will voice Katara in the upcoming Avatar: The Last Airbender. Beyond acting, she runs 7 Forward Entertainment and founded the Indigenous Film & Arts Academy, using her platform to champion representation, clean water access and community empowerment. The festival will screen two Dark Winds episodes showcasing her powerful work.
The Lineup: North American Stories Worth Discovering
The North American Indie Competition represents the festival’s commitment to films with majority North American production that might otherwise lack industry visibility, stories that may be overlooked by festivals focused on launching awards campaigns but that urgently deserve audiences, industry attention and distribution opportunities.
“This year’s program, as always, meets the moment,” says BendFilm Festival Director of Programming Selin Sevinç. “These are films about anxiety, conformity, injustice – and they offer thoughtful solutions and provocative counter-programming. These films originate in North America, but reflect an increasingly global and interconnected world, full of richly varied human experience.”
Here’s what has us intrigued:
Café Chairel
A subtle and evocative portrait of loneliness, loss and connection at a small cafe in the Mexican port city of Tampico. It’s the kind of subtle character study that reveals how shared pain can become the foundation for unexpected connection – intimate storytelling that finds profound meaning in the seemingly trivial moments of human contact.
Griffin in Summer
A 14-year-old boy’s life gets “hilariously rejuvenated” when his mother hires a 25-year-old handyman for the summer. The premise suggests brilliantly awkward territory where comedy and coming-of-age intersect, and the best indie films often find their magic in those uncomfortable, truthful moments that larger productions shy away from.
Under the Burning Sun
In a harsh landscape where abortion is forbidden, Mowanza, pregnant against her will, journeys with a battered car toward a distant land for a second chance. This is urgent, necessary storytelling that speaks directly to current realities with the kind of unflinching honesty that independent cinema does best. Expect this one to spark meaningful conversations that extend well beyond the theater.
Color Book
Following the passing of his wife, a devoted father learns to raise his son with Down syndrome as a single parent. It’s the kind of intimate family story that could easily veer into sentimentality but, in the right hands, becomes something genuinely moving and specific.
Anxiety Club
A documentary exploring anxiety through the perspectives of brilliant comedians who happen to be anxious themselves. When you’re examining mental health, there’s something particularly insightful about hearing from people who’ve built careers transforming internal struggles into connection and laughter. The film promises both humor and heart in its examination of a condition that touches nearly everyone.
Baby Doe
After new forensic evidence emerges, a churchgoing mother of three in Ohio is arrested for murder decades after abandoning a child she says was stillborn. It’s true crime documentary that goes beyond sensationalism to examine how the past refuses to stay buried, and how new evidence can shatter assumptions about guilt and innocence.
Documentary Stories with Real Stakes
Champions of the Golden Valley follows a coach in Afghanistan who missed becoming the country’s first Olympic skier and now inspires his village to create their own ski competition. It’s sports documentary meets cultural preservation meets human determination – a combination that feels both deeply specific to its location and universally resonant in its themes of resilience and community building.
The White House Effect excavates the climate crisis’s origin story through all-archival footage, focusing on a pivotal political battle during the George H.W. Bush administration that changed the course of history. Some of the most crucial stories are hiding in plain sight, waiting for the right filmmakers to uncover them and present them with fresh eyes.
You Need This offers an immersive exploration of consumerism, hyper-capitalism and propaganda’s effects on both individuals and society. In a world drowning in stuff and messaging about needing more stuff, this documentary promises the kind of wake-up call that feels both timely and necessary.
Indigenous Voices, Authentic Stories
The Indigenous Competition continues BendFilm’s commitment to amplifying Native voices with three powerful features:
Free Leonard Peltier examines Leonard Peltier’s 50-year imprisonment following a contentious conviction, as a new generation of Native activists works to win his freedom before he dies. It’s a story that combines historical injustice with contemporary activism, showing how some fights span generations.
Remaining Native follows a teenage Native American runner in a coming-of-age sports story that promises to be both personal and culturally specific, exploring identity through the lens of athletic achievement and community connection.
She Cried That Day tells the story of a sister’s love and the strength of Indigenous women refusing to let their loved ones remain invisible in the justice system – a powerful examination of how families fight for recognition and justice when institutions fail them.
Short Films, Big Impact
The shorts program spans 74 films across 11 curated blocks, plus another 11 screening alongside features. With titles like “Two People Exchanging Saliva” (set in a world where kissing is punishable by death) and “Jane Austen’s Period Drama” (a comedy set in 1813 England), the programming team clearly embraces both creativity and humor while tackling serious themes.
“Our shorts program continues to demonstrate that a more constrained runtime is no limit to great storytelling,” says Sevinç. “These filmmakers are pushing boundaries, exploring identity, confronting social issues and celebrating the human experience in ways that are both deeply personal and universally resonant.”
The blocks offer diverse entry points into the program. “Connections” features characters reaching each other in life-affirming ways, including Songs of Black Folk, a powerful Juneteenth concert documentary, and Teddy, a verité portrait of a male birth doula. “Crossroads” explores characters facing gaps between who they are and their social landscape, including MĀHŪ: A Trans-Pacific Love Letter, which explores Native Hawaiian transgender identity.
“Human + Nature” showcases characters acting in awe of the natural world, including Habbal et al, following scientists preparing for their twentieth solar eclipse observation. The “Late Night” block promises films that are creepy, shocking and hilarious – sometimes all at once – including Teen Mary, reimagining the nativity story, and Halfway Haunted, about a tenant who teams up with a ghost.
The “Local Focus” block gives audiences an opportunity to discuss local topics with filmmakers and documentary participants in extended conversations, celebrating stories emerging from the Central Oregon community itself.
Spotlight Films: Global Cinema, Local Context
The Spotlight categories feature the programming team’s favorites from festivals around the globe, from Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Atropia to Cannes Palme d’Or winner It Was Just an Accident. These urgent, human-scale stories represent the kind of cinema that challenges, engages and entertains.
Atropia follows an aspiring actress in a military role-playing facility who falls in love with a soldier cast as an insurgent, threatening to derail their performance with unsimulated emotions. Two Women explores two mothers – one having a difficult maternity leave, one dealing with depression – who despite careers and families feel completely unfulfilled until an unexpected encounter sparks revelation.
Urchin, Harris Dickinson’s directorial debut, follows Mike (Frank Dillane) in a propulsive portrait of life on the margins, offering a raw snapshot of a slow tumble into oblivion that’s both slyly funny and imbued with warm humanity.
The Full Experience
With the expanded five-day format and focused approach to independent cinema, the 2025 festival represents BendFilm at its most ambitious and essential. Between the panels, over $12,500 in prizes distributed across categories, and Bend’s perfect setting for post-screening discussions, this year’s festival promises the kind of experience that reminds you why independent film matters.
Whether you’re diving in headfirst with a festival pass or stopping by for a single screening, there’s something here for everyone. In an entertainment landscape increasingly driven by algorithms and franchise thinking, BendFilm doubles down on stories that challenge, engage and entertain – sometimes all at once.
Located in the heart of the Pacific Northwest, Bend remains a haven for outdoor lovers, artists and foodies, sitting on the traditional lands of the Wascoes, the Warm Springs and the Paiutes, known today as The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. It’s the perfect backdrop for five days of cinema that celebrates the full spectrum of human experience.
Tickets, passes and more information are at BendFilm.org.